A year ago, Tiangong Ultra was struggling simply to finish a half-marathon. On Saturday, August 22, the Chinese humanoid robot ran 100 meters in 9.39 seconds at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, faster than Jamaican sprinting legend Usain Bolt’s 9.58-second men’s world record.
The astonishing jump in speed is perhaps best understood by looking back at where Tiangong Ultra stood just a year earlier. In April 2025, the humanoid robot competed in the Beijing E-Town Half-Marathon, an event that brought around 12,000 human runners and 21 humanoid robots onto the same race course, with humans and robots running in separate lanes.
Only six of the 21 robots finished the 13.1-mile race. Tiangong Ultra was the winner among the robots, but its performance was hardly comparable with that of the human runners. It completed the course in about 2 hours and 40 minutes, making it the only humanoid robot to finish within the human race's 3-hour-10-minute cutoff, as per a Wired report.
The robot also needed considerable human intervention along the way.
Barely finishing a half-marathon to breaking Bolt's record
Tiangong Ultra fell during the 2025 race and required three battery changes from human operators. Other robots suffered falls, overheating, mechanical breakdowns and other failures, with some disappearing from the live broadcast shortly after the start.
The machines were also accompanied by teams of human operators who helped with battery changes, controls, cooling and emergency repairs.
Some robots moved painfully slowly. Others reportedly spun in circles, crashed into walls or suffered mechanical failures. The event was as much a demonstration of the challenges of making humanoid robots run as it was a showcase of their potential, the outlet noted.
Tiangong Ultra nevertheless crossed the finish line. A year later, the same broad goal of making humanoid robots move like humans has produced a dramatically different result.
At the second edition of the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, Tiangong Ultra won its 100-meter preliminary heat in 9.39 seconds, according to Reuters, beating Bolt's 9.58-second record set at the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin.
The robot wasn't even leading at first
The 100-meter race itself showed how different robotic sprinting remains from human athletics. Tiangong Ultra initially fell behind Lightning, a humanoid robot developed by smartphone maker Honor. It eventually overtook Lightning near the finish and crossed the line in 9.39 seconds.
